Member participation and co-operative governance: the importance of associative intelligence LARRY HAIVEN, ACADEMIC DIRECTOR, CO-OPERATIVE MANAGEMENT EDUCATION PROGRAMS, SAINT MARY S UNIVERSITY
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3 Story about Canadian auditorgeneral Amid sponsorship scandal AG documented malfeasance The accountant as rock star Disdain for politicians and public officials Politicians among least popular occupations Democracy is messy, chaotic Do we want technocracy or democracy?
ICA Blueprint for a co-operative 4 decade Goal #1: Elevate participation within membership and governance to a new level. Co-operatives are better because they give individuals participation through ownership, which makes them inherently more engaging, more productive, and both more useful and more relevant in the contemporary world. An end as well as a means
Conflicting goals 5 Investor-owned firms Ensure maximization of shareholder value Safeguard assets Co-operatives Meet member needs Meet community needs
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How do we decide what member 7 needs are? Member participation is key Members Board CEO Staff
Exit, voice and loyalty 8 Hirschman 1970 IOFs: Participation of little value, even impediment (exit) Activist shareholders seen as cranks, single-issue obsessives If you don t like the company s policies, sell your shares Doesn t explain the why Co-ops: Participation essential (voice & loyalty) Transmission line of member needs Source of board renewal But voice is confrontational, uncomfortable, conflictual
Fundamental dilemma 9 Democracy is complex, messy, chaotic, unpredictable (though innovative) But governance is about control Steering vs rowing How to reconcile the best of the two?
Democracy 10 Direct Representational Proportional
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Carole Pateman Participation and 12 Democratic Theory 1970 A process where each individual member of a decision-making body has equal power to determine the outcome of a decision. Participation in non-governmental authority (decision-making) structures is necessary to foster and develop the psychological qualities (the sense of political efficacy) required to participation at the national level
Deliberative democracy 13 As opposed to mere aggregative democracy i.e. voting Reasoned argument & public reflection should precede voting Public interest should not emerge from existing preferences, but from reasoned argument, debate, discussion, changing of minds Reasoned debate, public justification, political equality
What is participation? 14 Becoming a member Voting Coming to meetings/agm Deliberation and debate Running for positions of responsibility Presence on board
Associative intelligence 15 Macpherson (2002) credits George Keen, sec of Co-op Union of Canada 1909-45 a belief that there is a special kind of knowing that emerges when people work together effectively; a conviction that people through working together could learn skills that would make collective behaviour more economically rewarding, socially beneficial and personally satisfying
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Social capital 17 features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit (Putnam 1995, p. 67)
Associative intelligence & social 18 capital When I first started [working at the cooperative] I did not see any other co-workers because you go house to house and you do not see other co-workers. But since we are ownermembers and we own this [business] I became more involved in committee meetings, the trainings sessions and then I became a mentor and went through the mentor training and now I have mentees who I talk to. This is helping [me] get to know some of the members. I believe it [the cooperative] has boosted their self-esteem and their confidence enormously. They have all learned a great deal about the day to day operations of a business...it s not just me it s now us, I see that just in their body language. They walk taller, they have pride in what they are doing, they are able to verbalize. Majee 2007, writing on home care co-op in Wisconsin
The Sask Wheat Pool and its demise 19 As farmers got involved in cross-class organizations like consumer co-operatives, credit unions, school boards, town councils, and hospital boards, they brought their skills, experience, and maturing socialist perspectives with them. Indeed, Lipset (1959) suggests it was the scope for participation in public life in this sparsely populated province that accounts for the rise of agrarian socialism. As Courtney (2007) has argued, the extent of local involvements in the decentralist structures of this era created an exponentially greater degree of civic participation than we experience today. Diamantopoulos 2011
The Sask Wheat Pool and its demise II 20 The Pool s democratic structure included 449 local committees and a five-day annual meeting attended by 140 delegates. Rolling up this democratic structure eliminated opportunities for adult education, democratic participation, and the experience, knowledge, and skills which those structures of participatory learning had previously enabled. Privatizing the Pool was not only a commercial transaction but also a direct and immediate democratic disenfranchisement The Pool s customers would no longer participate in the company s management as equal voting members. This was a major structural reform to the province s political economy. It was regressive, anti-democratic, and devastating to the co-operative movement. For these reasons, subjects interviewed for this study routinely winced, sighed, or vented at length over the fate of the Pool. Almost a decade and a half after its move to market several study subjects still seemed to be angry, in mourning, or both. This rollback of popular democracy needs to be placed in perspective, as part of the broader trend to centralization of school boards, health boards, retail cooperatives, and credit unions across rural Saskatchewan. Winding down the Pool s democratic structures further reduced already dwindling opportunities for citizen engagement, participation, and development. Diamantopoulos 2011
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Alberta rural natural gas co-ops 22 Bulwark against rural depopulation & hollowing-out Board members sit on other boards Electricity co-ops School boards Other ag co-ops Town councils Dense web of political & social affiliations
Plunkett: How can meaningful democratic involvement amongst grass roots members be maintained & developed in large consumer co-operatives? 23 Democratic participation by internet Co-operative circles Surveys Feedback Invites to regional AGMs Avoiding survey fatigue Panel polling (stratified)
Dawson: Worker-Owned Boards: The Challenges 24 of Board Governance in a Worker Co-op 2 challenges board members w limited to no knowledge of leading an organization, but tasked with overseeing the leaders imagined & real challenge of being the boss of one s own boss Building of co-operative citizenship